Under scrutiny: Cambodia’s treatment of ethnic minority Vietnamese refugees has put the country back in the spotlight. Photo: AFP

Geneva: Local authorities in Cambodia are preventing 13 members of a Vietnamese ethnic minority from going to the capital Phnom Penh to claim asylum as refugees, despite an accord with the government and the United Nations, UN agencies said.

The UN refugee agency and UN human rights office voiced concerns about the safety and deteriorating health of the 13, who they said have been hiding in the Cambodian jungle for seven weeks, fearing arrest and deportation to Vietnam.

The 13 belong to an indigenous ethnic minority from Vietnam's Central Highlands known as Montagnards, or 'mountain people' in French. Many Montagnards are Protestant Christians who sided with the United States decades ago in the Vietnam War.

Cambodian interior ministry officials and UN officials travelled to the north-eastern province of Ratanakiri last week for joint talks on the Montagnards' fate.

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"It was agreed that if the group indicated they wished to apply for asylum, they would be brought to Phnom Penh to enable them to do so," Adrian Edwards of the UN refugee agency UNHCR told a news briefing in Geneva.

Despite orders from Cambodia's interior minister to co-operate with the joint team, Mr Edwards added, the local authorities in Ratanakiri refused to let the team meet the group or transport them to the capital.

UN officials were prevented from accessing the area on Friday and were told that police were searching for the 13 "possibly with a view to returning them to Vietnam", Edwards said.

Australia signed a refugee transfer deal with Cambodia in September. Under the agreement, up to 1000 asylum seekers could be transferred from Australia to Cambodia.

"We believe there are substantial grounds for believing that the Montagnards may be in danger of being subjected to human rights violations if they are returned to their country of origin, Vietnam," said UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville.

Mr Edwards said the UNHCR has not been allowed to assess the asylum claims of the 13.  

Reuters